Johnny "Guitar" Watson - And The Family Clone

Johnny “Guitar” Watson was another one of those eccentric, genre-bending characters, who carried on churning out albums, and which I kept on buying. I’ve got a few JGW LPs.

This one, from 1981, sees Watson playing all the instruments (apart from the drums on one track) and doing all the vocals himself. It's got his mix of soul, blues, disco, funk and jazz, typical for this period of his work. He was fond of a vocoder too.

This was Watson’s last album on the DJM imprint, the label owned by Dick James, who had made his dough owning owning the Beatles publishing and signing Reg Dwight.

I saw Watson live once, at the Town & Country Club in Kentish Town, which the internet tells me was the 27th June 1987. I remember having a bit of a shit night, but that was down to who I was with, I think. A waste. Impressive, though, that he could still fill the T&C in 1987, despite having largely faded into obscurity by then. Also, probably the wrong venue for him at that time.

This is a really good album.

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